Spike930

I shoot a Mossberg 930 12 gauge with Hornady SST 300 grain FTX slugs. Recently shot a buck; quartering-to at roughly 30 yards. Clean ethical kill. My issue is that on impact I hit 2 ribs, took out the lungs, had a clean pass-through with very small exit wound and the slug barried in a tree just behind. The small exit would led to very little bloodtrail. Curious why there was no expansion upon entry. I'm assuming maybe there was still too much velocity with it being such a close shot. Any thoughts?

super_hunt54

Most have the exact opposite problem Spike. But to answer your one question, velocity CAUSES expansion not reducing. It could be because of the angle the bullet "veered" on impact taking the nose of the bullet sideways a bit which will cause it not to expand. Happens sometimes. Or it could have been one of those rare instances that just not enough pressure on the nose of the bullet to cause expansion. Those 300 grain FTX's are pretty tough bullets.

rockport

Most slugs are kind of hit and miss as far as expansion goes.

They work most of the time but from my experience they all fail to expand correctly every once in awhile. It usually doesn't seem to matter.

Ive seen several with the tip still on.....which may what happened to yours.

Spike930

"Veering" actually seems quite possible. Upon inspection of the carcass I did notice that the entry wound was was on a cracked rib with an oblong hole, which I assumed was caused by the angle of the shot. This was my first experience with slugs so I was pretty confused. Appreciate the insight!